1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a condenser for a refrigerating machine, which is used for condensing and liquefying a gaseous refrigerant after heat exchange between the gaseous refrigerant and cooling water.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a large scale structure such as a building, for example, the inside space of the building is cooled by circulating cooled water in pipes installed in the building for heat exchange between the cooled water and the air in the building.
FIG. 7 shows an example of a condenser included in a refrigerating machine. As shown in FIG. 7, this condenser comprises a cylindrical vessel 1 in which a bundle of a plurality of heat exchanger tubes 2 is arranged in a staggered manner.
There are two groups of heat exchanger tubes 2, one of which comprises the forward side (first passing group or first group) tubes, communicated with a cooling water inlet 3, and the other of which comprises backward side (second passing group or second group) tubes, communicated with a cooling water outlet 4. The forward side heat exchanger tubes are arranged to be located lower in the vessel, and the backward side heat exchanger tubes are arranged to be located higher in the vessel. Cooling water supplied from the cooling water inlet 3 passes through the forward side heat exchanger tubes and reaches to a water chamber (not shown), and then the cooling water returns through the backward side heat exchanger tubes from the water chamber to be discharged from the cooling water outlet 4. In this circulation process, the gaseous refrigerant introduced into the vessel 1 by a compressor (not shown) is cooled, condensed and liquefied through the heat exchange with the cooling water. Note that the liquefied refrigerant is supplied to an evaporator (not shown).
However, a problem arises in that, since the heat exchanger tubes are arranged densely in the above-described condenser, the condensed liquid refrigerant moves towards the right and left sides of the vessel along the heat exchanger tubes by the supply pressure of the gaseous refrigerant introduced into the vessel and the condensed liquid often accumulates in both the right and left end portions of the foreward side heat exchanger tubes located lower in of the vessel. When the condensed liquid is accumulated around the second group of heat exchanger tubes, the thick condensed liquid layer accumulated around the heat exchanger tubes causes an increase in the heat resistance of the tubes and causes degradation of the condensation performance of the condenser.